A remedy to mitigate tensile instability in SPH for simulating large deformation and failure of geomaterials

Abstract

Large deformation analysis in geomechanics plays an important role in understanding the nature of post-failure flows and hazards associated with landslides under different natural calamities. In this study, a SPH framework is proposed for large deformation and failure analysis of geomaterials. An adaptive B-spline kernel function in combination with a pressure zone approach is proposed to counteract the numerical issues associated with tensile instability. The proposed algorithm is validated using a soil cylinder drop problem, and the results are compared with FEM. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm in the successful removal of tensile instability and stress noise is demonstrated using the well-studied slope failure simulation of a cohesive soil vertical cut.